“there are institutions filled with people who talk to god. we've labeled and drugged them.”

“A drug is not bad. A drug is a chemical compound. The problem comes in when people who take drugs treat them like a license to behave like an asshole.”

“Many people talk of the “god-shaped void” in their lives that had been waiting to be filled by faith. Always in born-again hindsight, this is. Of course, in present tense, the void is usually first tested with drug- and carnality-shaped pieces until the person’s jigsawed chi bottoms out and settles for spirituality in the bonus round.”

“The gods wanted to create creatures who would worship them. First they made the animals, but they couldn’t talk. Then the gods created people out of mud, but when it rained, they fell apart. Then the gods created people out of wood, but they had no feelings, so the gods washed them away in a big flood. Finally, the gods created people out of corn, and they turned out just right.”

“A label doesn't make something so. A label is just a word. It's what a person does that makes them who they are”

“We've got to simplify, pull back all these layers of supposed complexity , and get down to the essentials. If we want people to engage with government, we should use the same tools that are getting them engages with companies and institutions in private life. If we want people to care about political issues, we should give them a way to understand and get involved in them.”